Interesting Random Facts

Where Is the Saltiest Lake In the World?

The Dead Sea, on the border between Israel and Jordan, is really a lake, fed from the north by the Jordan River. Although the Jordan pours 4,740,000 tons of fresh water into the Dead Sea each day, that fresh water evaporates very quickly because of the extreme heat in this part of the world.

The Dead Sea lies at the bottom of the deepest fault, or break, in the earth’s crust, and the evaporation causes the water here to be nine times saltier than any ocean. Because of this heavy concentration of salt, no fish can live in the Dead Sea.

Swimming in the Dead Sea is an unusual experience. Because of the high percentage of minerals, mostly salt, in the water, bathers are kept constantly afloat. It is virtually impossible to dive or swim underwater!

If all the oceans on earth dried up, the rock salt remaining would be enough to build a wall a mile thick and 180 miles high all around the Equator!

The saltiest lakes in the world are in Antarctica. Lakes such as Lake Vanda and Don Juan Pond are much saltier that the Dead Sea or Lake Assal. Don Juan Pond is so salty that it does not freeze even during the bitter winters when temperatures reach minus 30 degrees Celsius. Don Juan Pond is 18 times saltier than the ocean (the Dead Sea is only 8 times saltier). Since 1977, Don Juan Pond has shrunk considerably with a current area of approximately 300m X 100m with a depth of less than 10cm. Lake Vanda is approximately 10 times saltier than the ocean and is much larger, 8km X 2km with a maximum depth of 75m.

Outside of Antarctica, the saltiest lake in the world is Lake Assal in Djibouti, on the horn of Africa. The concentration of salt is about 9 times that of the ocean while the Dead Sea is about 8 times the concentration of the ocean.

See Wikipedia for more details.

austin

theres a lake in turkey that is so salty fish die within the first couple minutes of being in it i don’t know the name of it